1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is related to kitchen and/or food preparation tools, and more particularly, to a device for hulling a food item, such as a fruit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the culinary arts, efficiency and presentation are both crucial to preparation of food items. One preparation task that is time-consuming is hulling food items. Various food items are hulled for different purposes, for example, to remove unwanted or uneatable portions, to provide an aesthetic appearance, or to achieve a shape that facilitates placing other items in the hulled region. One food category, which is frequently hulled, includes fruits, such as strawberries. Conventional methods of hulling include, in the simplest form, using a knife. However, such methods remove more than what is required. For example, in the case of strawberries, edible portions are removed along with the hull when a knife is used, resulting in wasting useful portions of the strawberry. Such elementary methods are also cumbersome and time-consuming, and pose a risk of injury to a user.
Other hulling devices or tongs are difficult to manipulate, making it hard to hull a large number of food items in a short amount of time and typically remove more of the food item than desired. Other existing devices that are more expedient to use include cylindrical coring portioners that remove a fixed volume of the food item regardless of the size of the food item, and therefore, result in wasting usable portions of the food item. These devices are also difficult to clean, as residue builds up inside the core-removing cylinder, which is not easily accessible.